MONTHLY WILDLIFE RESEARCH LETTER 
Vol. 3, No. 6 
Page 3 
mortality. Mortality in this experiment occurred mostly among hens fed low calcium 
and/or low phosphorus diets. 
Table 1. —Per cent change in initial body weight of hen pheasants fed 
different amounts of calcium and phosphorus from March 8 - June 1, I960. 
Total Phosphorus (Per Cent)* 
Calcium (per cent) 
0.70-1.00 
1.01-1.05 
1.09-1.34 Mean 
0.34-0.37 
2.2 (1) 
8.0+3.1(4) 
3.2+3.5(6) 4.8+2.0(11) 
1.66-1.85 
8.9+5.3(7)** 
7.0+3.8(7) 
15.3+2.4(5) 10.3+2.4(19) 
2.06-2.19 
9.8+2.7(7) 
13.7+1.9(5) 
13.9+3.3(7) 12.3+1.6(19) 
Mean 
9.3+2.5(15) 
9.3+2.0(16) 
10.7+2.1(18) 
*The three levels of total phosphorus contained an estimated 0.32, 0.62 and 
0.92 per cent of the diet in available phosphorus. 
**Mean + standard error; number of hens in parenthesis. 
During June, 166 observations were made of pheasants on the Neoga area. 
Ninety-five per cent of the observations were made of wild transplanted pheasants; 
the remainder were observations of game farm pheasants. 
Fifty-three pheasant nests have been located at Neoga. Average clutch 
size for 45 of the nests was 8.8. Fifteen of the nests were established by wild 
transplanted hens and three by game farm hens. The origin of hens from 35 nests 
was not determined. Field data strongly indicate that the wild transplanted 
pheasants have survived better on the Neoga area than have pheasants from game 
farm stock. 
